“…this new short-scale 000 has a full-bodied voice that immediately says it is no “small guitar.” The bass has Grade A beef in its rosewood brisket, a satisfying heft in the midrange fundamentals under a firm flatpick, and trebles that sound precise and strong when picking out melody, or glint like whitecaps atop a flood of sweeping strums that swell and heave with the woody warmth from the Stika/rosewood undertone. And yet, when played with delicacy, notes from the unwound strings roll out from arpeggios as defined, delicate, and pure as sunlit dewdrops…”

“…a clear and articulate top voice, with cavernous space behind it, good for reflecting reverberating sympathetics but also for allowing the main notes to stand up and out…But even brand new, the D-45 John Mayer already has considerable shimmer and glimmer to its it ring, and power in its bones.”

The NEW Martin HD-28 (2018) has pre-war looks and forward shifted bracing!

Combined with the High Performance neck

Since the mid-1990s people have said Martin’s Standard Series guitars should have the looks and sound of the Vintage Series guitars, especially those who kept saying, “I’d buy one if it didn’t have the V neck.” Well that is pretty much what has finally happened. So here ya go, Ladies and Gentlemen get your wallets ready!

WATCH ON YOUTUBE in HD1080 FOR THE BEST SOUND

The written review will follow in time, I am putting out the videos first this year, at least for Winter NAMM.

While this guitar was designed to have the fastest, sleekest neck ever put on a Martin acoustic guitar, Maury’s Music will accept orders for this exact same short-scale 000C-21 TSP with the neck shape, nut width, fretboard taper, and string spacing of your choice. In the words of the artist who designed it, a guitarist should be able to have whatever neck best suited their comfort or desire.

﻿

Watch in 1080p for best sound

I could not possibly offer an objective review of this Martin guitar. I am the man who designed it to be just so, according to my likes and needs.

But I also designed it with an eye and, more importantly, an ear and a hand toward creating a unique musical instrument that would appeal and be genuinely useful to artists who pick up acoustic guitars for many reasons beyond providing background rythmn for singing songs.

And with all of the new Martins coming out at NAMM on Thursday, January 25, I will have way too much to review as it is, and news blurbs to post about those guitars from Martin and other builders that I cannot yet see in person.

So I will leave further information about this instrument to Maury’s Music, who is offering this Martin guitar for sale as a Custom Artist Edition, designed by me, your humble Spoon, and made in Martin’s Custom Shop. It will officially be announced at Maury’s on the 25th, along with the rest of the new Martins available for sale at Maury’s Music.

And there is also the notice I put on my personal website, tspguitar.com for those who wish to learn more about this guitar in my own words. Here below is an excerpt.

Forty Years in the Making

It has been over 40 years since the Jackson Browne album, For Everyman, made its initial impact upon my young, impressionable ears. More to the point, it was the never flashy but always evocative guitar work provided by David Lindley on that record that schooled me in how a sideman can so enhance a song without overdoing it with superfluous fireworks. And it has been less than 40 years since I read the interview with where Lindley mentioned that his favorite recording acoustic guitar was a 000-21 from the early ’40s.

If I would not have already been drawn to Martin’s Style 21 instruments because of their esoteric status and utilitarian yet beautiful aesthetics, with rosewood a bit too wild and woolly in its looks for the staid Martin Company’s ship-of-the-line 28s, Mr. Dave’s endorsement sealed the deal.

It has long been my dream to create a guitar that would prove genuinely versatile for a musician who played as much Jazz and Rock on their acoustic guitar as folk or fingerstyle, while having a tonal heart that would have been right at home at the Martin Guitar Company of the 1930s and ’40s.

And this instrument has exceeded my every expectation.

In time, I will likely do a video in the normal One Man’s Guitar style with the same musical selections I always use for comparison’s sake and I may write up an expose or maybe just type up a transcript of the video above, for those who prefer to read more than watch YouTube videos.

A 12-fret dreadnought with the High Performance neck! Ultralight build with Adirondack spruce over Big Leaf mahogany with hide glue construction, light-weight carbon fiber used for the pickguard, and in composite with torrefied Adirondack spruce for the bridge plate! As well as lightweight tuners and fabulous Liquidmetal® bridge pins that for the first time have lost their chrome appearance and look like bone.

OK the previous two were done in similar Style 41. This one has the Style 42 pearl around the fretboard extension. Gorgeous inlays grace this stunning guitar made from highly figured katalox from the American tropics, which is harder than ebony, and heavily-bear clawed Engelmann spruce for the top!

Martin’s new cosmetic aging process is applied to the second edition of a D-45 Authentic that appeared the first year of the Authentic Series, which has an wider-than normal body and a honking huge neck, now with aged Adirondack spruce thanks to Martin’s Vintage Tone System, which wasn’t yet developed the first time around.

Made entirely from woods certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council promoting responsible management of our precious natural resources, this Orchestra Model with on-board Electronics combines American cherry back and sides with a Sitka spruce top and European spruce bracing.

These are in addition to the D-45 John Mayer model and the forest of newly revised Standard Series Martins, see the links below!